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How good is HD?

It may be a stupid question, but I have new Samsung 46" DLP and just watched a couple of DVDs that were anamorphic widescreen, no black bars, and they looked great. I have a 942 on order will HD really blow me away?

The best way I can describe good HD (and transfers can differ and sometimes it depends on the source) is like you're looking through a window. This is especailly true of sports--you'd think you had a presidential box seat.

I concur with Nick 110%, HD is unbelievable! It has ruined me. I really get mad when a show I really want to watch comes on in SD instead of HD. Once you go HD, you never want to go back! OTA HD is da bomb.

I'm new to HD but what I've seen in the past week+ has been outstanding. Take your best quality DVD viewing experience and up it from there. I have a 56" Samsung DLP and it's just amazing. I find myself watching stuff I would have never had the interest to watch simply because of the experience. Only drawback is that SD material has become relatively more painful to watch. Although, to be fair, the 942 seems to produce a superior SD picture when compared to my 510 or 50x's. I'm finding that, although I have the Everything Pack, the poorer quality picture results in not wanting to watch it as often. I'll take that trade-off any day!

HD rules. With all of our locals coming in HD over the OTA. We only usethe Sat locals for recording, dang we need more OTA tuners. There is such a big difference,, especially with NASCAR which I am starting to enjoy. The colors on the cars are beautiful and so much clearer , you can see the car and numbers all the way through the race,, and when they crank it up and boogity boogity boogity,, woohooo!!!. It makes the investment well worth it. The wife loves it during Colts football, the picture is awesome , even on zoomed out plays.

HD is the bomb! I was a Voomer and now have the 942, viewing on a 50"Fujitsu Plasma. I've been viewing HD since July and it never ceases to amaze me! Sports are great, but the majority of primetime local channels are also in HD. I normally wouldn't admit this, but watching the hotties last night on "Desperate House Wives" in HD was dreamy!

There is such a big difference, especially with NASCAR which I am starting to enjoy.

I have a Dish 942 and a Panasonic PT-AE700U projector arriving next week. Unfortunately, Speed Channel is not HD, so I won't be able to watch MotoGP and AMA Superbike in eye-popping 100 diagonal inch glory.

We have a new DishNetwork DVR 921 connected to a Denon AVR 3803 receiver and a 50-in Panasonic LCD TV (using all NHT speakers) and the sound and picture quality with HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 are absolutely incredible. At full 1080i one can stand a foot from the screen and its still like looking at a photograph. Too bad there is not all that much really good HD available at this time -- but go out and get HD anyway -- you won't regret it if you get the right equipment.

For those of you not old enough to remember, viewing HD programs is exactly what it was like back in the late 60's with color programming. Many programs were still B/W and the program would have to be definately worth watching for you to take the time to see it. However, if a program was in color, you would watch it, no matter how bad it was. Its the same now with HD. I find myself watching programs in HD that I would never have watched in SD.

I suppose in a couple more years it will settle back to the usual, as by then (hopefully) most programs will be HD.

It may be a stupid question, but I have new Samsung 46" DLP and just watched a couple of DVDs that were anamorphic widescreen, no black bars, and they looked great. I have a 942 on order will HD really blow me away?

Watching DVDs on a 4:3 tube via composite/S-video connections and going to a 16:9 display using a component connection (preferably progressive with a decent processor in your DVD player) is an order of magnitude improvement.

Going from 16:9 480p/i to true HD is yet another order of magnitude improvement.

Once you get used to HD you'll refer to SD as LD - as in Low Def.

On top of that... even if your local OTA channels aren't HD but are digital you'll appreciate the nice clean signal.

I've had an HD projector with a 110" screen for 2 years now and I am still totally blown away whenever I watch HD on it. I never get used to it. Yes, it is the standard for me now as I watch very little SD, but I don't get used to HD. It's like Christmas everytime I turn it on.

I concur with Nick 110%, HD is unbelievable! It has ruined me. I really get mad when a show I really want to watch comes on in SD instead of HD. Once you go HD, you never want to go back! OTA HD is da bomb.

Couldn't agree more, and like Nick, I'm a pretty jaded old fart (or a jaded pretty old fart depending on your perspective). Visually, HD is simply a whole lot more interesting to watch.